A sailboat participating in this year's Newport Beach-to-Ensenada race broke into pieces when it slammed into North Coronado Island in the dark of night, an independent review has concluded. All four crew members were killed in the April 28 accident, which sank the 37-foot sailboat Aegean a few miles off the coast of Mexico. The extent of the destruction - tiny pieces of debris were scattered over a wide area of ocean - led to initial speculation that a much larger ship had crushed the sailboat.

Call it the case of the stowaway seabird. A man driving through Los Angeles was alerted Friday to an enormous bird that had hitched a ride in the back of his pickup truck. With its white body, black wings and curved yellow beak, it might have been mistaken for a super-sized sea gull. But the bird, it turns out, was thousands of miles from home. It was a Laysan albatross, a seabird with an impressive 7-foot wingspan that normally nests on remote islands and atolls in the North Pacific Ocean.

Thick, tarry fuel oil disgorged into San Francisco Bay from a damaged cargo ship in 2007 was surprisingly toxic to fish embryos, devastating the herring population that feeds seabirds, whales and the bay's last commercial fishery, scientists reported Monday. Although the bay's herring spawning grounds are now free of toxic oil, studies have found that the moderate-size spill of 54,000 gallons had an unexpectedly large and lethal effect. The culprit, a common type of ship fuel called "bunker fuel," appears to be especially toxic to fish embryos, particularly when exposed to sunlight, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A stricken cargo ship carrying tons of oil threatened to break apart off the coast of New Zealand late Monday and dislodge from the reef it rammed this month. Salvage crews halted attempts to pump oil from the Liberian-flagged Rena as weather in the area worsened. The ship, which ran aground Oct. 5 on a reef 14 miles offshore, has spilled tons of heavy oil that has washed up on pristine beaches near the town of Tauranga on New Zealand's North Island. But rough seas have stymied salvage efforts: An estimated 85 to 100 tons of oil has been removed from the listing ship, while 1,400 additional tons of fuel remains aboard.

The Israeli navy on Tuesday intercepted a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea that it said was carrying weapons destined for Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Israeli commandos intercepted the German-owned ship about 200 miles off Israel's coast. The ship began in Syria, stopped in Turkey and was believed to be heading to the Egyptian port of Alexandria, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu told Israel Radio. Israel did not say what evidence it had to suggest that the weapons were destined for Gaza.

Three children are among seven Danes who have been kidnapped by pirates in the Indian Ocean, Danish officials said Monday. The youths, ages 12 to 16, were taken captive along with their parents and two other adults on board a sailing vessel that put out a distress call Thursday, the Danish Foreign Ministry said. Media reports said the ship was on its way to Somalia, but the purpose of the voyage was unclear. It's believed to be the first time that children have been victims in the spate of hostage-taking bedeviling the waters off eastern Africa.

Five alleged Somali pirates arrived in South Korea on Sunday to face trial in the recent foiled hijacking of a cargo ship, charges that could bring them life in prison, officials here say. Wearing hooded coats against the winter cold, a world away from the equatorial heat of the Arabian Sea, the heavily guarded men said little as they disembarked from a plane in the southern port city of Busan. Authorities alleged that the five were among 13 pirates who this month seized the South Korean chemical freighter Samho Jewelry and kidnapped its crew of eight South Koreans, two Indonesians and 11 citizens of Myanmar.

Christmas comes simply for mariners visiting Port Everglades: not with big parties or pageants or liturgies, but with a gift-wrapped shoe box stocked with soap, shaving cream, work gloves and other basics from a ministry known as Seafarers' House. The ministry's Shoebox Christmas is in its fourth year. Volunteers have been handing out the brightly wrapped boxes since late November to two or three ships a day, seven days a week. "It's nice to get gifts; it makes us happy," Cesar Ladesma of the Philippines said as students from a South Florida school brought gifts to his cargo ship.

The moon was bright, the sea was calm, and the pirates easily spotted their prey ? a large gray ship plodding through waves 576 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia. Three men jumped from a command boat into an open skiff and raced toward the target. They opened fire with AK-47 rifles as they neared the starboard side, hitting a mast and several life lines. No one was hurt, and the April 1 incident normally might have drawn little notice. Somali sea bandits have attacked several hundred freighters, tankers and other merchant ships this year.

Scrambling to plug holes in cargo security revealed by the bomb plot in Yemen, the Transportation Security Administration announced Tuesday it was planning an overhaul of its passenger and cargo screening methods. Top Homeland Security Department officials met all through the weekend to decide what long-term steps to take to address the vulnerability of cargo and to identify remaining gaps in security. TSA director John Pistole, in a speech in Germany, said he would like to see more advanced screening technology, better information sharing, more flexible search procedures that might change based on a particular threat, and less emphasis on "cookie cutter" approaches like the system-wide ban on containers that hold more than 3 ounces of liquid in carry-on luggage.